1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus that can perform data compression and output compression data to an external device, and also relates to its driver software, a data transfer system, and an electronic apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, inkjet printers have low noise and compact bodies, and require relatively low manufacturing and running costs. Accordingly, many inkjet printers are widely used as ordinary recording apparatuses or copying machines. Among conventional inkjet recording apparatuses, serial type inkjet recording apparatuses can perform recording on a recording medium with its recording head.
In particular, to reduce the capacity of a memory in a recording apparatus, a region of one scan recording operation can be divided into plural regions in the scanning direction. A host apparatus can transmit data and commands for each separate region to a recording apparatus. The recording apparatus can process the data and commands for each region received from the host apparatus and performs a recording operation with the recording head.
However, it is a recent trend that higher resolution images and higher quality images are demanded. Thus, the data volume transferred from a host apparatus to a recording apparatus tends to increase. The increase in the data transfer volume will cause a problem that a recording apparatus having a relatively low recording speed cannot follow the data transfer rate. The problem is not limited to only the data transfer performed between a host apparatus and a recording apparatus.
For example, recent image reading apparatuses have higher reading resolution and tend to be subjected to an increased volume of readout data. The volume of data transferred from an image reading apparatus to a host apparatus increases. Thus, reduction of a transfer time is required to ensure transfer of data from an image reading apparatus to a host apparatus.
Similarly, when a host apparatus transfers a large amount of data to other host apparatus, reducing a transfer time is desired. As described above, the volume of data transferred from one electronic apparatus to other electronic apparatus should be reduced and the transfer time should also be reduced.